Warning: Some SPOILERS are forward for Squid Recreation Season 2!
The second season of Netflix's hit Korean survival thriller, squid recreation, has angered viewers in a single Asian nation, with requires a boycott and its potential elimination from the streaming platform. With the primary season breaking viewership data and racking up a powerful array of award nominations, Netflix launched the extremely anticipated sequel worldwide on December 26, 2024. Regardless of the crucial response to squid recreation Season 2 wasn't as overwhelming as Season 1's unprecedented worldwide embrace, critiques for the present's second season are nonetheless largely optimistic.
Put Korea's weatherNonetheless, one explicit second in squid recreation the second season generated critical reactions in Vietnamwith the matter finally being referred to the nation's authorities for evaluate. The query at hand refers back to the present's references to the Vietnam Conflictwith many viewers accusing this system of glorifying South Korean troopers' participation within the battle and “lime[ing] the atrocities” that had been dedicated. In accordance with Vietnamese state media Lao Dong, Vietnam's Movie Division is reviewing whether or not the second season conflicts with the nation's movie legal guidelines. The division acknowledged:
If the collection is discovered to violate rules, we are going to deal with the matter in accordance with the regulation.
What sparked the Squid Recreation season 2 controversy
South Korea and Vietnam share a fancy historical past
This newest controversy isn't the primary time that squid recreation The second season was met with criticism, with the casting of a cisgender actor within the position of trans character Hyun-ju additionally resulting in backlash on-line. Nonetheless, this newest controversy stems from the non-public historical past of participant 388Dae-ho (performed by Kang Ha-neul), and the way in which his character's father is described.
Throughout Season 2 Episode 5, “One Extra Recreation,” Lee Jung-jae's Gi-hun and his staff have a good time their victory within the second recreation and start sharing extra about their lives. When Gi-hun asks why Dae-ho was despatched to the Navy when he was the one son in his household, he explains that it was his father's thought as a result of he “needed me to turn out to be an actual man.” Dae-ho additionally explains that his father was a Vietnam Conflict veteranto which Gi-hun responds, “Sour father should be an honorable man.”
It was this alternate that provoked continued backlash amongst many Vietnamese viewers, who felt the dialogue glorified the participation of South Korean troopers throughout the Vietnam Conflict. Moreover, among the on-line feedback which have emerged accuse South Korea of selling double requirements. Korea's climate The report highlights a number of on-line feedback which have emerged from Vietnamese viewers, together with one which states: “South Korea calls for apologies and reparations from Japan for colonial rule, however is happy with its army involvement in Vietnam.”
Our Tackle Squid Recreation Season 2 Boycott Calls
Netflix has beforehand had issues with Korean content material in Vietnam
The monumental success of squid recreation the primary season was an enormous step ahead in selling non-English content material on the worldwide stage. Nonetheless, given the extraordinarily advanced and typically delicate nature of relations between nations, the expectations and cultural views of one nation's leisure exports usually are not at all times properly obtained by others. When these shared histories additionally contain armed battle, it inevitably turns into exponentially harder to navigate any such alternate easily.
This isn't the primary time that dramas produced in Korea have confronted opposition from Vietnamese audiences relating to their dealing with of the Vietnam Conflict, and in 2022, Netflix was additionally pressured to drag the Korean drama. Little Ladies for the same purpose. Whether or not the Vietnam Movie Division will make an analogous determination for squid recreation The second season stays to be seen, however the difficulty serves to focus on the customarily delicate nature of exporting leisure merchandise on a world stage.
Supply: Korea's weather